Correspondent Blog

Bank Director’s 2026 RankingBanking study (HERE), sponsored by Crowe and compiled by Piper Sandler & Co. using S&P Global Market Intelligence data, ranks the 300 largest publicly traded U.S. banks on 2025 results. This year’s headline finding may look like a focus on net interest margin: the top 25 banks posted a median net interest…

Over the past two weeks, we presented the latest 2Q 2026 data to showcase each bank’s peer group analysis (HERE) and analysis around the “Flaw of Averages” (HERE) to help banks choose the right median or average to compare themselves to. In this article, we look at the bank peer group forensics behind the analysis…

Last week, we presented peer group analysis with a free tool banks can use to compare themselves against others. We also provided a methodology for doing that. In case you missed it, be sure to go HERE. In this article, we want to highlight one other issue that we touched on but didn’t explore in…

One of the most common mistakes that bankers make is benchmarking their institution against the wrong peer group. Many management teams spend hours discussing how their net interest margin (NIM) compares to the industry average, whether their efficiency ratio is above or below peers, or how deposit growth stacks up against other banks. The problem…

Now that we have complete call report data, the banking industry unveils some tidbits of knowledge that has an impact on every bank’s positioning and strategy. In this article, we recap the major trends of the quarter and discuss what it means for a data-driven, strategically focused bank management team. The Backdrop for Bank Performance…

In our previous article (HERE) we discussed differences between how various banks price commercial loans. We contrasted ideal pricing and real-world pricing strategies employed by banks. We highlighted the objectives of loan pricing and summarized seven tools that community banks can use to price commercial loan relationships. In this article, we would like to further…

In our previous article (HERE), we explained that fee income (not net interest margin, asset size, or nine other variables) has the highest correlation to community bank performance as measured by both return on assets and equity. Growing fee income is one of the most critical investments you can make. Why? We believe that this…

Annually we study community banks’ performance to investigate which financial variables correlate to Bank ROA. We then explain that correlative relationship using further studies, analysis, and industry observations. We use average five-year ROA and measure the correlation coefficient (R2) for various financial variables. Over the years the relationship between NIM and ROA has been remarkably…

Now that we have all the 2025 data for the banking industry, we spent some time working with Amberoon, sifting through the data, the trends, and the insights to produce a dashboard and in-depth report on almost every community bank in the U.S. Beyond metrics, this is our first iteration (now in beta form) of…

With most of the banks filing their call reports, there are some interesting pictures of the banking industry that emerge. We use Amberoon’s Statum platform to analyze community banks under $20B in total assets to highlight four trends from 2025 banking performance that merit addressing when it comes to enhancing profitability in 2026. Loan and…

One reason why banks have efficiency ratios over 40% is because they install a bunch of actions – workflow, technology, and strategy, which assume that banks need to operate in silos. Commercial banking has one set of solutions, while retail has another. Banks keep data in 30+ various places, have 40+ different data models, and…

As banks finish strategic planning, it is helpful to understand your bank’s performance assuming you DON’T make any changes. A statistical reliable model that factors historical performance, current business model and future market assumptions allows bank executives to more accurately apply capital, resources, and risk to improve performance with a higher degree of confidence. In…